A family affair

摘要

On a dry sandy track in India's Ranthambhore National Park a tigress lies, oblivious to the BBC camera team that is chronicling her life. She is suckling her cubs. She licks their heads tenderly as they nuzzle her. It's another intimate scene in anintimate film - except that there is something odd about it. What is strange is that she has no milk and her cubs, both males, are as big as she is. They are 17 months old and nearly ready for life on their own. In his commentary, the renowned Indian naturalist Valmik Thapar says that he has seen nothing like it in his 27 years watching tigers in the park. It is a moment of intense bonding. A few days later, the two young males have disappeared. To find out what happened to them, you must watch the film, but the incident itself is interesting. Was it, as the commentary suggests, a final farewell before the cubs set out on their precarious journey towards solitary adulthood? Was it the way the mother had of showing them that her milk really was dry andtheir childhood was over? Or was it just a sign that she was coming into oestrus and would soon be on the look out for a real man? Was it all these things? We don't know, though the film's interpretation is entirely credible.